Woodland Mgt.  -  A Generation of Sophomores

 

Letter to Editor

 

The 15 March Washington Times article titled "Deer dilemma" can be read as
an honest attempt by a fool to explain a current wildlife issue (winter deer
feeding and disease) or as a cynical attempt to twist this issue into a
propaganda piece for more land closure and less natural resource use and
management nationally.

The entire piece boils down to the primary recommended solution, to wit "If
people want to help the deer, they should protect mature softwood forests".
That is the statement that is either incredibly naïve or cynically crafted
to conceal a sinister hidden agenda.  This tack is mirrored in all the
recent perpetual "Conservation Easements" being touted by environmental land
corporations and Federal bureaucrats.  Reading one such "easement" just this
morning revealed a provision "No timber harvest, except to provide firewood
for residences on the property". Like the "protect the softwood forests",
the "No timber harvest" sounds sensible to urban neophytes and environmental
activists while being EXACTLY THE WRONG THING for deer, turkeys, rabbits,
elk, woodcock, songbirds, reptiles, amphibians, etc., etc.

PROTECTING mature forests results in progressively fewer plants, less plant
and animal diversity over time, and increasingly fewer animals in such
areas.  Additionally, fewer human incentives to maintain the forests whether
in private or public ownership (urban bike paths can only justify a limited
acres of public land or the expensive operations and maintenance of public
ownership) merely reduces America's natural resource base and the freedoms
and rights of American citizens.

MANAGING AND USING forests for timber and grazing and mushrooms and hunting
and trapping and all manner of human use results in diversity and an
abundance of plants, animals, and landscapes.  Whether the area is New
Hampshire woodlands or Wisconsin or Arkansas or Idaho woodlands these
principles hold true. Ten year-old Virginia clear-cuts growing back are some
of the finest deer, turkey, quail, rabbit, and songbird habitats in the
state.  Additionally, a patchwork of re-growing clear cut or selective cut
areas AND "mature softwood forests" (to be harvested in future years)
provides not only winter food for deer but also food and cover for turkeys,
rabbits, grouse, and wintering songbirds as well as benefits to hunters,
trappers, mushroom hunters, mistletoe hunters, ginseng hunters and many more
folks that will maintain the areas in perpetuity and American freedoms
because of a REAL interest in woodlands.  These things are true nationally
as well as locally.

Please find writers that understand this and employ a better filter on such
misleading things appearing in your paper.  Otherwise, readers may begin to
think you support this sort of propaganda.


Jim Beers
15 March 2006